Footage from Conor McGregor's new Netflix documentary showed how the UFC star injured his foot before fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov.
McGregor, 34, injured two of his toes just three weeks before fighting bitter rival Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018. The Irishman would go on to be tapped out in the fourth round by Nurmagomedov, but their grudge fight will mostly be remembered for the chaotic scenes that unfolded afterwards.
During a sparring session with Moldovan fighter Kosti Gnusariov at his SBG HQ, McGregor landed awkwardly on his foot after being taken down. The Irishman instantly recognised his broken toes by holding his leg in the air as the session came to a halt. McGregor's coach John Kavanagh tried his best to downplay the injury by suggesting the toes could be dislocated, but McGregor feared the worst.
"It might be a dislocation," Kavanagh said before McGregor replied: "It's not, it's bad, my toes are broken. F*** sake. Why is it like that? It's like it's locked more than that. It's spasming." Doctor Julian Dalby, who serves as McGregor's conditioning coach, then recognised the toes should be put back into place as soon as possible to avoid a serious injury.
Dalby tried his best to bend McGregor's toe back into place, but the pain was too much for 'Notorious'. The Irishman can be seen getting more distressed as time goes on with his toes still out of place - and out of desperation he gets Dalby to try and put them back into place once more.
The trainer managed to put one of McGregor's toes back into place with the other injured toe not needing to be readjusted. After grimacing in pain, McGregor said: "That was easy, that was light work. The other one is alright, that was nothing. I feel like I could do the rounds again, that was great."
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Upon the advice of his team, McGregor then sat out for the rest of the training session with ice and a towel around his injured toes. It wasn't the worst injury McGregor had suffered in the lead-up to the fight as he tore his ACL just nine days before his interim featherweight title clash against Chad Mendes at UFC 189 in July 2015.
'Notorious' reflected on this in the moments after his injury as he said: "It feels okay. It's a couple of toes, I've f***ed up my ligaments in my knee nine days before a fight. It's a couple of toes, I'll still smack him [Khabib] in."
